This blend of soft, pinky grey and delicate fawn has been bred on and off in the UK since Russians were first imported, but only made its way into the NFRS standards in 2011. As dove is to lilac, dove agouti is to lilac agouti – a particularly attractive, pinky-grey coloured rat with dark eyes and a sprinkling of heathering.
There are some very bright and orange dove agoutis around, as obviously they’ve been bred without a standard for quite some time and so breeders have never had anything in particular to aim for. This brightness is mainly from the yellow ticking, as the dove grey shade is similar on all of the rats.
Genetics: Agouti with one “brown” gene and the Russian blue gene – so either chocolate (A-bbrbrb), mink (A-mmrbrb), or American mink (A-amamrbrb). All three shades can be quite similar.
NFRS standard: A blend of warm pinky grey ticking over a light fawn ground. Heathering of the ticking is normal for this variety and not a fault, Undercolour grey to the skin, foot colour to be grey, belly colour light silver. Eyes black.